1136Leveraging on waste management for supplemental vaccinations to incinerate wastes from routine immunization in nigeria

Abstract

Abstract Background Nigeria, in 2019, implemented an Integrated Measles and Meningitis A vaccination campaign (IVC) majorly in the northern part of the country including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The campaign was necessary to interrupt the transmission of these diseases in unimmunized under-fives. FCT aligned with this novel approach to reach its target population of 692697 children aged 9-59 months and 651951 children aged 1-5 years with the Measles and Men A vaccines respectively. Given the integration, FCT was going to generate twice the volume of wastes compared to previous stand-alone campaigns. This paper aims to document the best practices FCT used to incinerate the large volume of sharp wastes generated during the IVC as well as outstanding wastes generated during routine immunization (RI) services. Methods A waste management working group was inaugurated at the state level to coordinate all waste management activities in FCT. They developed a waste management plan outlining the expected amount of wastes to be generated, cost implications, mapping of incineration sites and modalities of evacuation and incineration. Result A total of 20000 safety boxes generated from the integrated Measles and Men A vaccination campaign (17645) and RI (2355) were incinerated. Conclusion FCT has incinerated all sharps generated during the 2019 integrated Measles and Men A vaccination campaign as well as outstanding routine immunization wastes. Key message Coordinated waste management activities are required to continuously manage RI wastes.